The Harry W. Fowler Lecture

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Summary of Lecture

HADRIAN'S COINS: VOYAGES, COMMEMORATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS.
Hadrian (AD 117-138) is remembered today as the great traveller of the
Roman Empire. He is particularly renowned in Britain as one of the very
few imperial personalities to set foot on the remotest and dampest part
of the Roman World. Of course he left his great mark on the island in
the form of Hadrian’s Wall, and this monument stands as a symbol of
Hadrian’s concern with the protection and the development of the
provinces. Much more than any previous emperor, his reign heralds the
cultural inclusiveness characterising the later Roman Empire. Many of
Hadrian’s successors would, like him, be from families with roots
outside of Italy. Provincial concerns of the reign, however, are
balanced with a strong personal artistic interest in producing monuments
for the city of Rome, and many of Hadrian’s varied interests are
reflected in the marvellously illustrative coinage of the time. From adoption to (posthumous) deification, great expeditions from
Britain to Syria, the obsessive pursuit of popularity and intimate
references to family and lovers, the coinage of Hadrian is rich in
visual messages about the controversial emperor’s life, loves and legacy.
This brief overview of the subject was undertaken as part of Mr. Abdy’s
input into the lavishly illustrated BM catalogue Hadrian, Empire and
Conflict.

Mr. Richard Abdy graduated from the University of Glasgow and now
curates the later Roman and early Byzantine coins at the British Museum.
In addition, his duties include participating in the recording and
publishing of Romano-British coin hoards as part of the UK treasure
process. (This enables museums in Britain to judge whether they are
historically significant enough to acquire or at least save the
information for posterity before their dispersal.) He is currently
researching the imperial coinage of Hadrian as part of a project to
produce a completely new edition of Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC) vol.
II, part 2.